FESTIVE, we’re all that now. Yesterday, the Grand Street Dancing Parade took place, kicking off the two-day festivities that culminate today with the Grand Float Parade, the centerpiece events that have been the very heart and soul of every Panagbenga celebration. By all accounts, nothing should have marred or brought any untoward blemish to anyone, especially our throng of visitors who must have labored hard and long to be at the very core of our unrivalled flower festival. That is how infinitely confident are this year’s Panagbenga organizers are.
By and large, as in years past since Panagbenga was introduced in the mid-nineties, today’s and yesterday’s events would earn the usual raves from everyone, the tourists more particularly who have always been endeared to the nation’s best managed festival. Our street dancers, especially the grade schoolers, have done their very best to give on-lookers the very epitome of charm and allure Baguio has long been known for. Today, it’s the turn of the floats to captivate and surely, they’ll do just that, eliciting outbursts of praise and admiration all-around. This is Panagbenga 2018, proudly Baguio’s best on national and international display.
For now, let’s set aside the acrimonious exchange of saddening allegations that have hounded the conduct of Panagbenga 2018. Surely, they deserve utmost public scrutiny, given the ugly nature of what have been alleged between and among the very leaders, public and private, who ought to have their trap shut, out of good faith that is at the cornerstone of every flower festival celebration. For weeks now, we have been given a shameless spectacle of brickbats only fishwives are capable of. So unBaguio indeed.
For now, let’s put up our prettiest profiles of unity, friendship, and goodwill in keeping with the Panagbenga spirit that has helped Baguio rise up anew as an attractive place to visit, to enjoy, and to experience what has always been a Filipino dream to savor the best that city life can offer from the caring cradle of its lush mountain resource. This has historically been Baguio’s magical mystique; it has also been its alluring magnet for the many urban woes every resident is saddled with year to year.
For now, let the Issues be sidetracked for the moment, issues that should have been threshed out in as amicable a way as possible, issues that would seem to divide, rather than unify, issues that could have been ordinarily clarified, had there been good faith between and among our leaders, issues that are plainly inexplicable to any well-meaning observer.
It’s a time for blossoming, in case our wrangling fishwives — that’s what they all deserve to be called — have forgotten. It’s Panagbenga time when we ought to be expressing the abundance of love all around, instead of having petty emotions burst out in inglorious recriminations unworthy of anyone’s overarching attention.
We have said it time and again: Panagbenga is all about caring and sharing, between and among our own residents and the visitors we graciously host at this time of the year. It’s all about the precious environment that Baguio has in all its unequalled uniqueness, the very pristine natural setting from which floral resources have grown in full splendor, the very richness that we all wish to be preserved, nurtured, care for, regenerated from time to time, in brief, to be managed well enough simply for generations next to enjoy and bequeath to succeeding stewards.
To our guests, do experience our natural environmental wealth as eloquently showcased in all public exhibitions lined up throughout the month, from the Baguio Blooms now ongoing at Burnham Park to the Session Road in Bloom beginning Monday till Sunday next week. And as you do, strive to go around, not in cars, but on your feet. Point-to-point destinations are just an extra mile to walk. Get that extra mile and walk. Take in Baguio’s air and be one in communion with the best there is in Baguio.
To our fellow residents, share time to showcase the vaunted Baguio hospitality. Lead in showing the way to the better life by going green all the way. Make our guests act responsibly in keeping the surroundings clean and unlittered. Remind them that Baguio is a Hall of Famer national champion as the cleanest and greenest highly urbanized city, and we desire nothing less than be that way any time they’re here.
Happy Panagbenga to one and all!
